MATTAWAN, MI — Longtime Mattawan High School boys varsity basketball coach Dan Hoff was accused of verbal abuse toward players, throwing a basketball at a player, and using other coaching techniques or behaviors that were not accepted by school administrators, documents show.

The documents pertaining to Hoff’s dismissal as coach after 27 years at the helm were obtained by MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Among the documents are notes taken by Mattawan Superintendent Patrick Bird during meetings with parents and players in which Bird writes “players get attacked during drills,” Hoff “isn’t approachable” and “bullies,” and he “whipped a ball at” a player.

In a meeting with Bird, Hoff said he is passionate about getting the best out of his players and he attempts to motivate them, according to Bird's notes. Hoff also told Bird that he did not recall throwing any basketballs at players, but admitted to kicking a ball in practice.

Since Hoff was asked April 12 to step down and then fired on April 15, the issue has been the talk of the Mattawan community. Strong signs of support for Hoff are evident, notably on a Facebook page designed for that purpose, and a big turnout is anticipated at Monday’s 7 p.m. board of education meeting at the district’s Center Building Conference Room. The school board meeting will be the first since Hoff’s firing.

“We will have a lot of people there to express opinions and I think that’s a good thing,” said Bill Disch, assistant superintendent for business services at Mattawan Consolidated School. “We’re going to let them be there and express their thoughts to the board. At the end of the day, it’s going to be up to the board and what it decides.”

The first of a series of meetings between Bird, parents, players, Hoff and other Mattawan High School boys basketball coaches was held on Jan. 30. Parents of players requested the meeting with Bird after Hoff made the team hold a second tryout following a lopsided loss to Portage Central on Jan. 15.

Players were interviewed by administrators on April 8 and summaries of those meetings were filed by Jim Corstange, Mattawan interim principal, and included in the documents.

In the documents obtained by MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette, names of parents and players were redacted.

“My whole thing is protecting the kids here, and quite frankly they’ve been given a rough way to go already,” Disch said. “Somehow names were released out there and they’re really suffering.”

Hoff was asked to resign or retire as coach on April 12. Disch said that Hoff had until 11 a.m. on April 15 to resign or retire on his own and declined, so the coach was “removed.”

Hoff’s job as a teacher of language arts and French was not affected.

This was the second time during Hoff’s tenure as coach that his coaching tactics have been investigated. He was embroiled in a dispute with players and parents during the 1993-94 season. Hoff did not leave Mattawan because of the dispute, but did relinquish the varsity basketball reins for one year and coached the junior varsity squad for a season. He returned to the varsity position the following year.

In his career, Hoff has had a long track record of success, amassing a 334-235 record with seven district championships and six conference titles. But in 2012-13, the Wildcats went 8-14, their fourth straight losing season.

When Mattawan released Hoff's personnel file in response to the MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette FOIA request, the district included a news release about the recent investigation into Hoff's coaching tactics.

“Based on (the school’s) investigation, it became clear that some techniques or behaviors used by Coach Hoff were not acceptable in meeting our goal of creating a positive coaching experience for our student athletes,” the news release said.

“Many have suggested that our district share specific information pertaining to those concerns," Disch wrote. "Because this also involves students and their rights to privacy, we are not at liberty to go into detail with the general public.”

The news release indicated that Hoff’s one-year coaching contract was simply not renewed for the 2013-14 basketball season and that all coaching contracts are reviewed annually and renewed at the discretion of the administration.

Hoff could not be reached for comment for this story. He did not respond to voicemail left for him.

Signs that say "I Support Dan Hoff" have been popping up around Mattawan and the Facebook page with the same name had 2,809 "likes" as of Friday afternoon.

An online petition requesting that the school board reinstate Hoff as coach has also been created.

A petition titled “The Mattawan Board of Education: Reinstate Coach Hoff” on Change.org was created by John Gergely, who served as a volunteer varsity assistant coach to Hoff from 2004 to 2009. The petition had nearly 700 supporters as of Friday afternoon.

Following the initial Jan. 30 meeting, a series of meetings involving administrators, parents, players and coaches were held throughout February and March.

According to the documents, parents and players said Hoff is unapproachable or tough to approach. They said he does not create a positive environment and he is verbally abusive to players, including the use of swear words. They also said players on his team do not know their roles.

On April 8, interim principal Jim Corstange, athletic director Ken Mohney and dean of students Greg Mickelson called in players and interviewed them. Corstange supplied Bird with a summary of each of those meetings.

According to Corstange's summaries, players said that Hoff yelled many times — at certain players, in particular — but did not swear. All but one player said Hoff did not throw a basketball at a player. One player said that Hoff threw a basketball at a particular player’s legs this season and the ball hit that player. Multiple players said that Hoff has kicked a basketball. One player said that parents do not like Hoff because of playing time.

The Hoff case is not on the agenda for Monday's meeting, according to central office secretary Lourdes Puzivic. She said requests were made for it to be on the agenda.

Puzivic said that the public comments portion at the end of the meeting is open and each person will have 4 minutes to speak.

Gergely remains a close friend of Hoff and said he speaks with him almost daily. Gergely told MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette that Hoff is “very unsure of what the allegations are against him, uncertain of why the administration made this decision.”

Gergely said he has not witnessed any of the things being alleged against Hoff, but acknowledged that the coach is intense.

“Coach Hoff’s intensity, it’s passion. It’s such a misleading message to say coach Hoff is verbally abusive,” Gergely said. “(The allegations that) coach Hoff throws balls at players, coach Hoff is overly intense — I’m telling you, I coached with him for five years and he would never do anything like that. I think the Mike Rice incident at Rutgers (basketball coach fired for physically and verbally abusive behavior) was incredibly poorly timed (for Hoff).”

The majority of comments posted on the Facebook page support Hoff. Some do not, however, like Mattawan parent Trish Stapish Harrison’s: “This happened for a reason and he will not be reinstated as head coach. Too much liability. Great teacher, yes! Time for a change in coaching, yes!”

Hoff's letter read, in part: “You asked me to consider resigning/retiring with honor, but is it honorable to be dishonest? The two words, honor and honest, come from the same root. Is there any honor in being dishonest? If I tell you that I want to resign/retire when I really do not want to, isn’t that being dishonest, isn’t that being dishonorable?”